The Howellsian Volume
5, Number 1 (June, 2000)
At the annual conference of the American Literature
Association, held in Long Beach, California, May 25-28, 2000, the William
Dean Howells Society acted a sponsor of one session. Chaired by Sanford
E. Marovitz, emeritus faculty member at Kent State University and vice-president
of the Society, the session included papers from three panelists:
Matthew R. Davis from the University of Washington read "William Dean Howells,
Failed Utopianism, and the Promise of Supernatural Brotherhood"; Sarah
(Sally B. Daugherty from Wichita State University presented "The Home-Towners:
Howells the Critic vs. Howells the Novelist" ;and William Morgan from Brandeis
University delivered "From Sympathy to Complicity: Howells's Realist History
of Sentimental Ethics." Attendance at the session was gratifyingly
large. The Society plans to sponsor one session, perhaps two, at
the next ALA conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in late May, 2001.
Please send abstracts of papers of no more than ten-double space typed
pages to the current program chair, Sanford E. Marovitz (Department of
English, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242) by December 15, 2000, for
consideration for presentation in this session.
Donna Campbell, secretary-treasurer of the
Society, reminds all of us that now is the time for all good members to
renew their membership in the Society. Please send your renewal check
of ten dollars (a bargain price) either to her (English Department, Gonzaga
University, 508 East Boone Avenue, Spokane, WA 99258-0018), or to Jesse
S. Crisler (3127 JKHB, Department of English, Brigham Young University,
Provo, UT 84602-6280). Please inform colleagues that they may also
become members by filling out the Membership Mail-in Form accessible at
the Society's website, .
Members who have not visited this site recently will certainly want
to review the many links to Howells, his work, his life, and his contemporaries,
which Donna has assembled. Members may also be interested in subscribing
to Howells-L by sending a message to Donna at majordomo@gonzaga.edu, leaving
the subject line blank, and typing subscribe howells-l as the body of the
message; Howells-L may laws be accessed through a link at the Society website.
Please send Donna any announcements of possible interest to society members,
including calls for papers, information on new publications relating to
Howells, queries, suggestions, or other items that you think could be appropriately
placed on the Society's web page.
Enclosed with this copy of The Howellsian
is, as usual, a membership list. Please examine this closely both
for mistakes in your listing and for alterations you may desire to make
in it. Send changes to Jesse S. Crisler (jesse_crisler@byu.edu).
At the ALA meeting in Cambridge next year,
the Society will hold its biennial business meeting; among other items
of business to be transacted will be the election of officers, that is,
vice president and program chair, and secretary-treasurer and website manager.
Sanford Marovitz will automatically become president, as stipulated in
our bylaws.